Photography by Ian McEnroe
Dining with the Dead is an unforgettable cultural and culinary odyssey. Traditional, celebratory Mexican food is the soul of this one-of-a-kind cookbook. Make tamales, po zoles, pan de muerto, and many other festive, iconic dishes. Learn about altars, sugar skulls, and decorations. Unlock the essence of chiles, make scratch tortillas, and perfect the king of the moles.
Mariana Nuño Ruiz was born and raised in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. After years as an architect, she acquired a culinary arts degree and since then has cooked in restaurants, catered, and baked. Ian McEnroe has a University of Texas fine arts degree and is an award-winning photographer, consultant, and instructor. In 2013 lan and Mariana Co-created the blog, Yes, more please!, which the Austin Chronicle named a top ten local cooking blog.
They develop brand recipes, and their work has appeared in Huffpost, Food52, The Kitchn, Country Living, the Austin American Statesman, and more. Ian and Mariana are happily married in Austin, Texas. Visit them at www.yes-moreplease.com.
The idea behind this book was to create an authentic Mexican cuisine cookbook that explores the Mexican holiday of Día de Muertos—the Day of the Dead—and the wonderful traditional foods and culture associated with it.
We want to invite you to experience the rich culture and history at the source of the holiday. Our book is about food, mainly, but it’s also about honoring and respecting our departed loved ones, while forging new relationships and traditions in the process.
The Day of the Dead is a very personal holiday. We cook for ourselves but also for the spirits, and we make them the foods that they loved here on Earth.
– Mariana Nuño-Ruiz McEnroe
Cookbook Highlights
- More than 112 delicious recipes
- More than 540 beautiful and mouthwatering photos
- High quality 8 x 10-inch trim size hardcover book
- Sections about ingredients and how to find them and treat them
- Numbered instructions
- Photographic step-by-step instructions
- Highlights homemade foods, created from scratch
- Crafting instructions included as well
- Learn the origins of Día de Muertos
- Learn about altars and ofrendas (offerings)
- Venture into the night vigil at the cemetery in Mexico
The Recipes
We have a pretty long table of contents, with FOURTEEN major food sections. They cover everything from appetizers to drinks, baked goods to salsas, and moles to pozoles.
In addition we included a section on the basics of ingredients and kitchen equipment, so you can learn and familiarize with the elements needed for the cuisine. Each recipe headnote has a story behind it, from origins of the dish to personal family experiences.
– Mariana Nuño-Ruiz McEnroe
Beyond the Food
You will learn about more than just food, such as how to make an altar and what to put on it, how to cut paper to make your own flowers and papel picado, and how to make and decorate sugar skulls.
This is the story of our experiences with the holiday and with cooking with family. It’s also the story of our journey to Mexico to experience Día de Muertos up close and personal. And it’s the story of the delectable, scratch, made-with-love food that warms our souls on special occasions and all year long.
– Mariana Nuño Ruiz
